This year, e-commerce sales are predicted to jump 15% from last year. This is big news! Not only does this make 2010 the biggest e-commerce year ever, it’s happening in the midst of a major long-term recession. If you are one of the many companies that sells products or services online, this holiday season could be huge for your company, and it couldn’t be coming at a better time. So, what can you do to maximize sales and make sure you’re getting the most out of your site traffic? Hold on to your hats, folks, and pay attention…

Clean House and Take Names
We’re getting close to the wire with Christmas only a few weeks away, and online sales (as opposed to in-store retail) is predicted to ramp up and up as the big day approaches. If you haven’t done it already, visit your own site with a critical holiday shopping eye. Don’t just visit the front page—pretend you’re a customer and make a purchase. Do your best to catch any typos, bugs, or strange formatting. Make the process as pretty and seamless as possible to maximize sales.

Holiday Themes
Tis the season to decorate your site with holiday images, from front to back. Make your site feel as festive as possible and visitors will respond. Studies show, the more festive the atmosphere, the more sales retailers make. This is just as true for online stores as it is for brick-and-mortar. Just do a google search for some festive images and be sure to make them non-denominational. The last thing you want to do is offend your shoppers.

Put Your Best Promo Forward
Lead the pack with an unprecedented sale or special to entice new customers. While you might balk at the idea, sales are more valuable than the amount of money they bring in. A first-time shopper is much more likely to become a repeat customer if you make them remember you with a huge discount. Also, word-of-mouth spreads fast at the holidays, with coupon sites running up-to-the minute promotional specials from all over the Internet. Take a few moments and submit your coupons everywhere you can, and talk them up on forums. One satisfied customer can quickly become many as the sale catches fire.

Boost Your Bandwidth
Get ready for the influx by beefing up your hosting for the holidays. Many retailers forget this vital step and it results in lost profits, sometimes in the thousands. If your customers can’t access your site, they can’t make a purchase. It seems obvious, but many people don’t think about it until they’ve already lost money. Contact your hosting provider now and upgrade your plan. You can downgrade again after the holidays. The money you spend now will come back to you many-fold, and you’ll save yourself the embarrassment of a down website at the busiest time of the year.

Market Market Market
Use your company newsletter to announce your last minute holiday sales to your customers. Provide a special newsletter-subscriber-only link for a VIP discount to make your readers feel appreciated and valued. Highlight a few big sellers—products or services that have been selling well so far. Provide added discounts for these products and be sure to emphasize that they’re only available for a limited time. Use social media to spread the word too.

Fraud Protection
Fraud is rampant this time of year. Make sure you have a powerful e-commerce platform or third-party security solution to protect yourself and your customers from holiday fraud. Taking this added precaution now will protect your business’ reputation, and it will protect you from the infamous charge backs that darken the new year for many online merchants.

And… Remember to Check Out TurnKeyCommerce!

Happy Selling!

E-commerce is a ubiquitous tool in the online marketplace, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find a platform that works well, let alone one that is easy to use and has good back-end support. If you think about it, your e-commerce platform is just as important as the rest of your website. It may even be more important!

Once a customer reaches your store, chances are good they’ve decided to make a purchase. Your website has done its job, and you are about to make a sale, but you’re not home free. If your store is confusing, unattractive or makes your customer feel unsafe, all your hard work may go right out the window. Consumers are used to a certain standard for online stores, and anything less won’t fly. Would you risk your credit card information in an online store you didn’t trust? I sure wouldn’t.

It’s clear that professional, clean, secure e-commerce solutions are critically important for online success—so which one do you choose? Surely there are many options out there, but you probably don’t want to just try one and hope for the best. Unless you have the luxury of lost clientele, you’ll likely want a solution you can stick with. You’ll likely want a solution you can set up easily, without a steep learning curve. I can’t help but suggest TurnKey Commerce.

TurnKey Commerce offers a free 14-day trial, so I signed up to try it so I could write an informed post for our customers. I’d never seen the interface before and was interested to see how long it would take to start actually doing business. I can honestly say the process was fast, easy and fun—that’s right: setting up an online store was fun. The thing I enjoyed the most was playing with the templates, and configuring my store items. Even though I work for a company that specializes in easy online solutions, this particular solution seemed too good to be true and it was a shock that I was actually able to create a functioning, professional-looking store so quickly.

Really though, whether you choose TurnKey Commerce or another e-commerce solution, make sure you have back-end support, and that the solution works securely before you open it to the public. Your business depends on it. Learn more: http://turnkeycommerce.com